RATS!!!!!

[Harestad Farm]

Hey ! I have a rat problem. We live next to a wooded wetland area and I accept that having chickens i will probbly never 100% get rid of the rats but i feel like they are winning at this point. I tried burring wire cloth but they have managed to infiltrate that. I built boxes and have placed snap traps in the box so only rats and mice can get in and keeps the chickens out. And the rats go right around the snap trap box. They are very active at night. They have taken over the mole tunnels so they have an easy path around the yard. I do have poison bate stations away from the chicken area, but i hate using poison as any other animal that can access the station or eats the rats will then get poisoned. I know the rats are eatting the poison as their poops look green like the poison (which is another concern if they poop in the chicken pen and those chickens eat the colorful rat poop) Ive tried the bucket with water init an peanut butter on top so they fall in and drown, again with no success.... Any ideas would be appreciated!! thanks

 

[Robert 1234]

Rats... Yup, you got a headache for sure. You are on the win win side for rat control, as they are extremely cautious animals. If they are coming and eating the poison ... It will only be a matter of time and all will settle down. This all depends on how many rats you have . Remove all feed containers at evening and lock away or empty them into a steel bin (garbage can ) or similar ... Place bait closed in bait stations in the areas affected and remove during the day. I would try to attract the rats to another location away from the birds to avoid accidental poisoning. Good house keeping is a must here.... Unfortunately , this will never completely go away. You will have to maintain a ( maintenance ) program, as these animals follow their scent trails. Good luck

 

[sylviethecochin]

What and where are they eating? Isolate it, contain it. Use a metal container, if you can. Then make a barrel trap. Rats can see water, and by now, they probably know that peanut butter = trap. Just lean a board up against a barrel with feed in the bottom. That's the most effective rat trap I know. (We've caught entire families of rats that way--sometimes, when we didn't intend to. Generally you catch juveniles, but hey, whatever works.) Keep a shovel or a hoe next to it so you can hit your trappee over the head and kill it quickly.

Also, try blocking some of the holes and running a pipe from your exhaust down into the hole. Sit outside with a BB gun. Or a shot gun, depending on your aim and how much you like your lawn. Or a dog can work wonders--they love to kill rats. See if you can borrow a good pair.

Cats are marvelous too, though not team players.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I use chunx bait in tamper proof boxes too. Once you get the current population controlled you'll not have another problem. As they move into the area attracted to the feed they are killed by the bait station and don't get a chance to take up housing. Check your bait boxes every month or so and you'll find pre winter and spring is when you'll need to replenish the bait a lot as the rodents are on the move. Hardly go through any throughout the summer.

 

[Birdinhand]

in such a case digging out the coop, down about 8" and adding a layer of hardware cloth to the floor, mending the edges and seems, every 3" with thick black zip ties, buy a big bag. meticulously go around the coop from the inside and make sure there are not gaps more than a 1/2". the door is the common gap, if it's not snug, then add metal stripping around the edge to make it snug. treat the coop as a container. once the rats know where to come for food you have to be very dilligent to cut off their access to food. once you do that, they will disperse back to the normal rate of background population for where you live.

 

[8 Chicks 1967]

I've got two that make fun of me. They go around a peanut butter trap and a cheese trap and even move them slightly to dig under the wire buried just to get a few grains the girls have left before they go to roost..

 

[Birdinhand]

I've got two that make fun of me. They go around a peanut butter trap and a cheese trap and even move them slightly to dig under the wire buried just to get a few grains the girls have left before they go to roost..

Once the rats can recognize the traps, I don't bother baiting them anymore. I take about 10 traps and use them more like snares. rats are risk averse, they get sloppy and go fast out in the open, usually darting along fence lines or walls. look around, you can often see where they mark, it will be a thin film of brownish funk, they follow the same trails over and over, memorizing each turn so they can go quickly to avoid being eaten. Place the traps facing the wall or fence where they run and with enough traps they will make mistakes and run right across the trigger and get caught. ... but nothing short of cutting off their food supply is going to keep them in check in the long run.

 

[Harestad Farm]

What and where are they eating? Isolate it, contain it. Use a metal container, if you can. Then make a barrel trap. Rats can see water, and by now, they probably know that peanut butter = trap. Just lean a board up against a barrel with feed in the bottom. That's the most effective rat trap I know. (We've caught entire families of rats that way--sometimes, when we didn't intend to. Generally you catch juveniles, but hey, whatever works.) Keep a shovel or a hoe next to it so you can hit your trappee over the head and kill it quickly.

Also, try blocking some of the holes and running a pipe from your exhaust down into the hole. Sit outside with a BB gun. Or a shot gun, depending on your aim and how much you like your lawn. Or a dog can work wonders--they love to kill rats. See if you can borrow a good pair.

Cats are marvelous too, though not team players.

great info!!! can you elaberate on the barrel trap?? for some reason im struggling envioning it.. maybe im thinking to hard into it... I have 2 huskies, only problem they will go right through the fence with the rat and keep chasing and ill never see them again..lol... how do cats and chickens do?

 

[sylviethecochin]

great info!!! can you elaberate on the barrel trap?? for some reason im struggling envioning it.. maybe im thinking to hard into it... I have 2 huskies, only problem they will go right through the fence with the rat and keep chasing and ill never see them again..lol... how do cats and chickens do?

You have a tall barrel (garbage cans work great) with a few inches of feed in the bottom--exactly what you're used to feeding your chickens, and what the rats are used to eating. You give it an easy access route--put it near a wall so they can climb the wall, or set a board against it so they can climb up onto the board. They climb up and then down into get the feed and can't get out.

This works best if they're used to seeing the feed barrel and it looks like you've just accidentally left the lid off today. Rats are really smart, and they approach new things with caution. We have a shed in which we keep all our feed in barrels, and so this setup works really well for us. If you'd just randomly add a barrel to your setup, I don't know how well it would work, but it's worth a try--chickens certainly aren't in danger from it.

Seriously, I'd see if you have friends with some reliable dogs that can be called back. My dogs love rat-hunting and pounce and kill immediately when I have one cornered.
Your huskies might even be good--rats'll come out slightly drugged by the gasses from the engine, so they probably won't be that quick at running. And huskies are really fast.

Cats are good with chickens, and with chicks if they're raised around them. My cats (Sauron and Merry) don't give the chickens a second look. A lot of kittens do need to be trained to catch and eat mice. It's best if you get a cat that was already a barn cat and don't make a house cat of him--maybe he can come inside, but his job's outside. A plus if he's used to chickens. Check your local classifieds.

 

[Naser]

Get rat proof chicken feeders